Electronic devices, such as smartphones, are increasingly supporting use cases, where for certain functionality, it is desirable for the device to be able to support a larger display size. For example, larger display sizes can be desirable for viewing visual content as part of a media player or a browser, as well as for supporting the visual presentation of information as part of an application or program that is being executed by the device. However, such a trend needs to be balanced with a general desire for the overall size of the device to stay the same and even decrease in one or both of dimension and weight.
In an attempt to support larger display sizes without increasing the overall size of the device, device manufacturers have increasingly dedicated a larger percentage of the exterior surface to a display, where the display in many instances has grown in one or more dimensions to a size that dominates a particular surface, such as the front surface of the device. In at least some of these instances, the display has been allowed to extend into areas that had previously been used to support user inputs, such as areas of the surface that have previously supported a keypad, such as a numeric keypad.
Larger displays often means less housing, as the larger displays are accompanied by larger openings in the housing. In turn the larger openings typically reduce the amount of material that is available to support the structural integrity of the housing, and correspondingly the device. As such, manufacturers are increasingly relying upon materials in the formation of the device housings, such as metals, that have historically better maintained structural integrity with less overall material. This is true for devices having a full metal rear housing, as well as devices that incorporate perimeter metal housings.
However, housings made from conductive materials, such as metal, can interfere with the transmission and reception of wireless signals into and out of the device. Further openings can be made in the housing proximate the location of the antennas, which support wireless communication signal transmission/reception, in order to create an area through which wireless signaling can propagate. Alternatively, the antennas can be formed into the housing materials with cuts and/or further openings which isolate the antenna portions from the non-antenna portions of the housing. However, to the extent that cuts or further openings need to be made in the housing, the further openings and/or cuts can further affect the structural integrity. The further openings and/or cuts can also affect the aesthetics of the device.
In addition to the conductive structures associated with the housing, conductive structures associated with other auxiliary electronic elements can impact the functioning of a nearby antenna, which given the limited overall space constraints in some devices can present design challenges. For example, in some instances a conductive element proximate to a radiating structure, such as an antenna, can result in an unwanted electromagnetic coupling between the two, which can impact the intended performance of the radiating structure. As such, at least some designs will designate keep out areas, which are intended to avoid an unwanted interaction from other objects, such as conductive elements, from encroaching and impacting the operation of a radiating structure. Conductive elements can include conductive housing portions, as well as conductive elements internal to the device.
The present innovators have recognized that conductive elements within a traditional keep out area is possible while minimizing the potential negative effects on a radiating structure, if the conductive elements have been detuned in the frequencies of interest. Such a detuning can allow areas that were previously restricted to be used for the placement of conductive elements and/or an extension of conductive housing portions or structure. In other words, conductive structures and/or elements with appropriate detuning can be positioned more proximate an antenna structure while reducing the negative effects on an antenna structure associated with the related conductive structures and/or elements.